mm@oakland asked:


Mitt Romney announced that he would “suspend” his presidential campaign. Does this mean he could be back campaigning in the near future or is it just a euphemism for dropping out of the race?

Kendra Hammond

jane asked:


I am implementing a smoking awareness campaign on my campus, so that teens and adults between the ages of 16 to about 35, but I’m mostly concerned with getting the attention of the young adults. Any name suggestions?

Yvette Patrick

Mike J asked:


So much has been made recently about 800,000 the Obama campaign has given to ACORN. How much has the campaign donated to other organizations in total? Also the McCain campaign?

Dakota Cortez

Greg Allison asked:


campaigns can be tense and stressful. There is so much to do and often not enough time to do it. If you are a candidate or campaign manager, you should not be without a button maker machine. These machines will help you with some of the most critical areas of your campaign – getting the word out, addressing issues, and rallying support. Not only will buttons help acknowledge the issues and rally support, they will do it inexpensively and that is a word that any campaign manager likes to hear.

Mass mailings and phone campaigns take time and money. Postal rates continue to go up as well as the cost of paper, printing, and labels. You need paid staff or volunteers to organize the mailing list and put the mailers together for shipping. A great percentage of these mailers will never be read or even opened. The recipient who has other more important things on his or her mind will classify these mailers as “junk mail” and toss it in the trash. However, if you and your staff are wearing buttons, you are inviting the viewer to ask you questions. This gives you one on one face time with the public to answer directly and discuss the issues important to you candidate and party.

Your volunteers are some of the most important people you will deal with in a political campaign. They give their time and efforts in order to see their candidate win the election. Buttons for your volunteers are great for inexpensive nametags. Making buttons for your volunteers with the candidate’s name, party affiliation and the date of the election will help them be identified in public. This is especially helpful if your volunteers are doing door to door campaigning or are out at a public event. Buttons are a great conversation starter and will give your volunteers an opportunity to tell people about your candidate and the issues he or she cares about.

Rallies are another great opportunity to pass out buttons. Political rallies are high excitement and these buttons with your candidate’s name and what he or she is running for can be sold at rallies and fundraising events. Speeches and debates are other events that these buttons can be worn or sold at. These buttons will help accelerate the campaign and give your candidate name recognition.

Educating the voters on the issues is a major part of any election or race. Making buttons that read “Vote No on Amendment Two” will let people know just where you stand. Getting the word out about how your candidate or party wishes to vote is important. Buttons with the date of the election and an encouragement to get out and vote is equally important. A button that reads “Vote on November 2nd” will remind everyone who sees it to vote and this will enhance the odds of your candidate’s success.

Fundraising events are a part of every campaign. Contributors to your campaign can receive buttons that say “I support John Doe”. The campaign slogan should be made into a button and either sold to raise money or given away at party meetings and fundraisers. These also make a great keepsake for the candidate and the voters.

If there are particular activist groups that support your candidate, then make buttons with their organization name stating that the organization supports your candidate. This goes along way in showing that your candidate cares about that group and its agenda. For example, a button that says “John Doe Supports Local Commerce” given out to the local businesses will encourage others with that same feeling to vote for your candidate. You can never thank your supporters enough, and having custom buttons with their group name and the election year on it will be a keepsake at the close of the election.

Urging people to vote is critical in this day and age. Elections have become closer and every vote counts. Making “I Voted” buttons to give away after voting has taken place can encourage other people to step up and be heard as well. Make sure that you have some buttons made up with the date the voting takes place and encourage your staff and volunteers to wear them. If no one votes then no one gets elected and no issues are resolved. Buttons are a great way to remind people to perform this great civic duty.

You have probably already seen buttons in the political arena. Some of the major reasons those political parties and campaigners use buttons is that they are handy to pass out, inexpensive to make, and people will wear them. Buttons get your message out, identify your support staff, and encourage the public. Be it for the presidency or the local town mayor, every candidate and political movement should have a button-making machine.

Melvin Tyson

PeguinBackPacker asked:


Instead of focusing on what the candidates say or past performance, I want to base my vote on who gave what and how much to the presidents. Say if a candidate accepted money from a foreign goverment for fund raising, then I would not want to vote for such a person. If the candidate says they are for environment, and it turns out the biggest campaign donor was an oil company, I will not vote for that candidate. Things like that. So question is how do I find out and figure out the integrity of said donors?

Guy Harris

Marc Steel asked:


It appears to be a common trend nowadays to say that direct mail campaigns are dead. The development of the Internet has certainly left many more avenues of marketing open but those who suggest direct mailing is dead simply are not implementing their campaign efficiently.

Direct mail campaigns are all about trial and error. Try something, measure the impact, if it doesn’t work try something else next time. You need to work out the best ways to reach your target market and the best way to gain a response. Having worked in a company which bases itself upon direct mail campaigns, there are a number of options available.

The first and perhaps most important item to remember is control. For every mailing campaign there also needs to be a control group (i.e. customers that do not receive the mail). It is then quite easy to measure whether or not the mailing is having an impact or if those who did not receive a mailing are responding anyway. By comparing the two groups it is relatively straightforward to see whether the mailing campaign has produced any significant effect on your profit margins. For example, the group who were mailed may have showed no noteworthy increase in spend compared to the control group meaning that the campaign will need to be thought through.

Secondly, direct mailing campaigns need to be tracked on a month by month basis. For example, if a customer is part of your campaign in January and showed an increased spend because of this, how much are they still spending in October? Does your mailing campaign have longevity. Between these times it is more than likely that you would have launched further campaigns which have temporarily increased spend again. It is vital that customers are constantly made to be aware of your company. This to not to say that they need to be bombarded with mail but simply be kept up-to-date with special offers or big news from your industry. The more they see your name, the more likely they are to recall it when they do need something.

Thirdly, all customers who are to be included in your campaign need to be split up into adequate groups. It is quite unlikely that you will want to send the same sort of mailing to someone who spent with you last month and someone who spent a year ago for example. Perhaps you will want to send those who haven’t spent for a year some kind of offer (like 10% off) whereas those who spent recently don’t require an offer but just the latest products on offer.

Naturally all customers like to receive discounts and these can differ depending on your company. You could offer a percentage off, a monetary value, free delivery of goods or a free gift for example.

Another good idea is to target specific postal areas. You could try saturating a postal area a little further away from the company base who have possibly not heard of the company before. If this is successful you can then perhaps try other areas. There are also a number of companies who can produce lists of certain demographics which are available for purchase. For example, if you are a wholesaler of ironmongery, you might want a list of all construction firms within 100 miles of you. These lists will take you instantly to your target market.

An obvious way to measure the success of campaigns is to ask the customers. Wherever possible, ask them how they heard about the company. Get them to fill in feedback forms saying what they believe to be both positive and negative about the company. They will soon let you know if they don’t like to be mailed!

These are the basic ideas to any direct mailing campaign but the best way to learn is through experience. The more campaigns you run, the more proficient you will become and the better results will follow.

For further articles like this please visit my website. Click my name at the top of this page



Mason Sweeney

Uptown asked:


If she cannot manage her campaign finances properly, then how is she going to manage the U.S. Economy?

Nolan Dejesus

Jerry Bader asked:


How many websites should your company have?

That’s a question that comes up often in discussions with clients, but perhaps the idea never crossed your mind. Why would any company need more than one website? Not to be glib but the answer is as many as you need, but how many is that?

If you’re a large corporation it is fairly obvious that you need a separate site for each brand you offer, and a separate site for corporate background material and perhaps investor information.

But what if you’re a small or medium-sized company with a limited number of products or services? Then the question becomes, do your products relate to one another? Does one item flow into the next? Is your audience for each product or service the same? And what about totally different audiences for the same product: audiences that need to be approached with totally different tactics? And then there are special circumstances like new product launches, time sensitive marketing campaigns, and limited availability offers?

Mini Campaign Websites and Alternative Marketing Websites are an effective method of enhancing your marketing efforts and targeting optional audiences you would never have otherwise reached using your traditional sales marketing approach.

7 Tactical Reasons To Use Campaign Websites

1. Focus Your Presentation: eliminate distraction and non relevant clutter

It is human nature to want to get your money’s worth, but when it comes to website marketing this can be counter-productive. Wanting to cram everything you offer into one website aimed, or more to the point not aimed, at every interested audience only creates clutter and confusion. Forcing visitors to sift through reams of material only creates frustration and irritation, and with a click of a mouse they’re off to the next competitor listed on their favorite search engine before they even get to your relevant information.

A campaign or brand specific website allows you to get right to the point. Greet your targeted audience with a signature video Web-host supported by appropriate images and text. If a lot of text material is required then have it turned it into an audio presentation so the material is made more accessible, understandable, and easy to absorb.

A focused brand or campaign site shortens the sales cycle by making what you offer clear and distinct; it provides visitors with the sense that you are both competent and innovative in what you do and how you do it.

2. Use Alternative Tactics: experiment with non traditional campaign and sales’ approaches

Most companies follow a consistent sales approach that they have found successful. This is both a good thing and a bad thing: following a plan that has worked in the past aimed at your traditional customer base makes sense, except that it also limits you in reaching new audiences for your products and services.

There may be markets for what you offer that you have never thought of, or that you are afraid to approach because they conflict with your current methods, promotions, or initiatives.

Why give up on these potential customers when you can create an audience specific Web-presentation on a separate campaign website aimed specifically at that market. With a series of highly targeted websites you speak to the needs of specific audiences and at the same time insulate your regular clients from the alternative approaches.

In a highly competitive marketplace, your competition will be looking for every opportunity to take advantage of markets you ignore. Don’t let them. You can get to them first and establish your company as the niche leader. All it takes is a little imagination, effort, and a budget to implement. This way you can have your cake and eat it too.

3.Create Urgency & Impact: campaign sites urge quick response, while creating a memorable impression

Website visitors are always complaining how much time it takes them to search for and find the products and services they need. This often translates into complaints about download times, but the fact is, with the extensive availability of broadband, it’s not download times that frustrate people, it’s having to search through multiple pages and levels, in a hide-and-seek game to find what they want.

A campaign or brand-specific alternative marketing site gets right to the point and delivers the information or the promotion referenced in your email, banner, and print ads, or television and radio commercials.

And if you use a signature video Web-host to deliver the information, you are making sure the presentation has impact; so even if a visitor doesn’t view everything, they at least get the core message in a way they won’t forget.

Your targeted marketing sales pitch won’t get watered-down by extraneous information that just gets in the way. Depending on how the site is constructed and what the marketing objectives are, a campaign specific website can create a sense of urgency by building in a time sensitive expiry date.

4. Target New & Alternative Audiences: create new markets for old products and services

Not every audience for a product can be approached with the same tactics. Specific brand or campaign sites allow you to customize your approach for new or alternative audiences appealing to their specific lifestyles or behavior patterns.

If you’ve had experience running a sales staff or rep network, you know that salespeople who call on one specific market are rarely successful when asked to simultaneously call on another. Different markets require different approaches. Like a one-size-fits-all hat, it rarely fits anybody. Customize and isolate your approach to different markets, so you can speak directly to that market’s needs and attitudes.

The marketplace is often more innovative than the marketer in finding new ways to use old products; ways the manufacturer never realized existed. Ask your customers how they use your products and then go after that market with a direct campaign that takes advantage of that specific niche.

5. Isolate & Differentiate Brands: target specific audiences with specific tactics

Companies that offer a large number of products or services often confuse potential customers by presenting far too many options and alternatives. The result is the Web-visitor doesn’t buy anything because they don’t want to purchase the wrong thing, or not get the best deal. Even if you get the sale, you may lose the customer because they made the wrong decision.

You want to offer prospects a limited number of distinct alternatives, just enough so they feel they have been given a choice, and don’t have to look elsewhere. But too much choice within the same product category creates buyer indecision. If a product or service is aimed at a particular market because it has specific features, create a separate website to sell it. Isolating a product line on a separate website allows you to create a distinct image and brand story for that offering.

6. Accelerate Comprehension & Shorten Sales Cycle: be clear, be understood, be direct, and sales will follow

Campaign websites get right to the point. They present the marketing message quickly, and promptly direct people to take action without making them wade through mission statements and corporate histories that for campaign purposes just get in the way.

The longer it takes for someone to understand what the campaign is all about, the less likely they are to stick around long enough to make sense out of it. This is why we strongly recommend adding video and audio to the presentation. Video and audio allows you to say what needs to be said in the most understandable, persuasive, and memorable manner.

When it comes to website visitors you probably only have one shot at making a lasting impression, so don’t blow it by delivering a boring or confusing presentation.

7. Support Other Advertising Efforts: supplement other marketing material with engaging, viral presentations

Campaign websites can function as landing sites and contact venues for print, television, radio, online video, banner, and display ads, as well as for articles, newsletters, and news releases.

By segregating your campaign site you can more easily track responses better than if the campaign material was integrated into your corporate site. Separating your campaign website from your main site allows you to experiment with marketing tactics aimed at new or alternative audiences, with approaches that may not be suitable for your regular site visitors. You may not even want your regular customers to know that it is your company that’s running the campaign, so people will regard it as something completely new.

A Final Word or Two

You’ve heard about the “Long Tail” and ‘niche markets’ but what have you done about it? So many companies sell the same product, the same way, to the same audience, that people no longer pay much attention. Look no further than the search engine optimization market, when was the last time you actually read something truly different, truly innovative about SEO? What makes one company’s promise of top ten ranking any different from the next? And if everyone who paid for optimization was in the top ten in their category, you’d have to redefine what the number ten means.

Today companies, especially small and medium sized companies, have to be different to be heard. They have to be bold and innovative and constantly try new approaches to reach their audiences.

By trying different tactics using different websites delivering alternative presentations, to alternative audiences you expand and build your business without the concern that these bold new approaches will negatively affect your more conservative existing clientele.

About MRPwebmedia

People ask, “What do you do?” You could say we inform, enlighten, innovate, and create; you could also say we deliver our clients’ marketing messages in memorable ways using video, audio, webmedia campaigns and websites; all created in-house from concept to implementation, from graphic and motion design to Web-design, from script writing to video-production to post-production, from music composition to signature sound design.

What do we do? We motivate action by speaking to your audience’s real needs. We tell your story so your brand, your message, embeds in the minds of your clients. We are corporate storytellers.



Andre Donovan

Ashe asked:


unique ways to campaign for a high school election? i’m running for secretary
maybe it is a popularity contest but i’m serious about this…….!

Harrison Robinson

R. Sebastian Gibson asked:


As the outcome of the 2008 Presidential Election has come to a close being even more important to the future of the country with the current economic crisis, individuals and candidates from cities such as Rancho Santa Fe, Del Mar, Carlsbad and La Jolla in San Diego to cities such as San Clemente, Laguna Beach, Corona del Mar, Newport Beach, Anaheim, and Irvine in Orange County, from San Luis Obispo to Santa Barbara to Ventura and Oxnard, to Rancho Cucamonga, Ontario, Murrieta and Temecula to Indian Wells, Palm Springs, La Quinta, Palm Desert and elsewhere in the Coachella Valley have had questions about campaign election finance laws and have looked for answers as to what amounts have been permissible to contribute in this election year.

 

In 2007-2008, the individual campaign contribution limits for all federal offices have been as follows:

 

$2,3000 per election for a candidate for a federal office.This $2,300 can be contributed each individual in a married couple as well.

 

$28,500 per calendar year to a national party committee.This applies separately to a party’s national committee, House and Senate campaign committee.

 

$10,000 per calendar year to state, district and local party committees.

 

$5,000 per calendar year to any other political committee.

 

An aggregate total of $108,200 per two year election cycle with a maximum of $47,200 per two year cycle to candidates and $65,500 to all national party committees and PACs, of which no more than $40,000 can be given to PACs.

 

Foreign nationals may not contribute to any candidate, nor may any federal contractors. Corporations and labor unions may only establish PACs.

 

Cash of only $100 may be contributed. In kind contributions count against contribution limits.

 

Multicandidate PACs can give $5,000 to an individual candidate, $15,000 to a national party committee.

 

Non-multicandidate PACs can give$2,300 to an individual candidate, $28,500 to a national party committee.

 

A multicandidate PAC is a political committee with more than 50 contributors which has been registered for at least 6 months and, with the exception of state party committees, has made contributions to 5 or more candidates for federal office.

 

Any individual intending to campaign for any elected office needs to know election finance rules and should consult with a political campaign finance attorney at an early stage in their campaign decisions.

 

October 2008 News – Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama has set a new campaign contribution record with his announcement that his campaign fundraising efforts brought in $150 million in the month of September 2008. This gives Barack Obama a huge advantage which is reportedly allowing him to outspend John McCain by as much as 4 to 1 in some swing states. The campaign added 632,000 new donors for a total of 3.1 million donors to date. The average donor contribution to the campaign is $86.

 

If you have an election campaign finance legal matter of any kind, we have the knowledge and resources to be your California Campaign Finance Lawyers, and Orange County Campaign Finance Attorneys. For this reason, be sure to hire a California law firm with election lawyers who can represent you from Palm Springs, Rancho Cucamonga, Orange County, San Luis Obispo, Laguna Beach, Newport Beach and Huntington Beach, Corona del Mar, Anaheim, Irvine, La Jolla, El Cajon, San Bernardino, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Temecula, Palm Desert, Yorba Linda, Carlsbad, San Diego, Costa Mesa, Westminster, and Murrieta, to Indian Wells and La Quinta.

 

If you have an election campaign finance legal matter of any kind, call the Law Offices of R. Sebastian Gibson, or visit our website at http://www.SebastianGibsonLaw.com and learn how we can assist you. You can also call us to speak directly to Sebastian Gibson on the phone about your legal matter.



Neil Haney